Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: common house use

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

>> But no. Last night's discussion circle on common house uses left me
>> tense. A year in, we are using our beautiful CH well for meals, socials,
>> personal parties, meetings of members' groups. Yet it is often empty -
>> all day many days, plus several evenings a week.

A year is not very long for people to adapt the presence of the commonhouse.
Putting it to use for large groups all day and then your use all evening and
weekends will quickly shorten the life of the facility PLUS the community
members won't find uses for it because it will be too busy.

Also it will feel less like "yours."

I often sit in our commonhouse during the day for one reason or another and
it is amazing how much the space is used, if only for picking up mail and
saying hello to whomever else is there. I have found that it is so busy with
passers through that I no longer sit in the dining room to work. I hide out
in a side room. Too many interruptions.

One of the greatest values of the commonhouse is that it is _there_. Its
very existence makes so many things possible that our neighbors do not have
available for their blocks of friends. (Yes, I do offer once a year to help
them develop in-fill cohousing by taking down all their back fences.)

Don't "give away" the commonhouse. it is the center of the community --
common ground.

Sharon
-- 
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org


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